Environmental performance for microalgae cultivation commercial systems: sustainability metrics and indicators / Desempenho ambiental para sistemas comerciais de cultivo de microalgas: métricas e indicadores de sustentabilidade
In this study, we evaluated metrics and sustainability indicators for cultivation commercial systems based on microalgae. Cultivation systems as a raceway pond, tubular photobioreactor, flat plate photobioreactor, and fermenter were evaluated under a standard functional unit of 1 m³. These cultivati...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Institución: | Instituto Superior de Educação Vera Cruz (VeraCruz) |
| Repositorio: | Revista Veras |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs2.ojs.brazilianjournals.com.br:article/26361 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ojs.brazilianjournals.com.br/ojs/index.php/BRJD/article/view/26361 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | biomass raceway pond tubular photobioreactor flat plate photobioreactor fermenter life-cycle assessment. |
| Sumario: | In this study, we evaluated metrics and sustainability indicators for cultivation commercial systems based on microalgae. Cultivation systems as a raceway pond, tubular photobioreactor, flat plate photobioreactor, and fermenter were evaluated under a standard functional unit of 1 m³. These cultivation systems were estimated by midpoint indicators through the nine impact categories and later submitted to the normalization phase. Among the results found, three impact categories were shown to be more expressive to contribute to environmental impacts for the four cultivation systems, which are ecotoxicity potential, energy resource, and global warming potential. The best environmental performance was identified for raceway pond, although the worst-case scenario for the water footprint category was identified. Besides, in a comparative analysis between closed systems, fermenters showed better environmental indicators, followed by tubular and flat plate photobioreactors. In this way, the life cycle assessment allowed to highlight the hot points of the process, identifying the energy requirements as the critical points of the whole performance of the cultivation systems. Finally, regardless of the impacts associated with different cultivation configurations, it is important to note that the choice of the system will be directly associated with the target product to be produced. Therefore, the results found about the environmental performance of cultivation systems can serve as basic information to reduce the global environmental impacts of microalgae-based processes and bioproducts. |
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